Teachers

School leadership says the district is balancing budget and staffing issues.

As Montana schools struggle to fill classrooms with qualified educators, a growing number are turning to virtual teachers to fill the gap, but online learning isn’t a great fit for every student, and some schools are struggling to balance student needs with the reality of the teacher shortage.

A Montana law requiring public schools to notify parents of lessons that mention human sexuality — and allowing parents to pull their children from those lessons — has reached further and been more cumbersome than anticipated, according to two school district leaders.

Montana’s smaller, more rural school districts are having a hard time finding and retaining teachers. About one-fifth of schools in the state have moved to four-day work weeks to recruit and retain educators.

The Montana Office of Public Instruction says about 19% of school districts in the state are taking part in a new incentive program to raise starting teacher pay next year.

The district in north-central Montana is looking to potentially transition to a 4-day school week as a way to improve teacher recruitment and boost morale.

Student enrollment in the Big Sky School District has been on an upward trend for the last decade, but a lack of affordable housing in the growing ski resort community has made it challenging to recruit and retain teachers. Administrators and local leaders hope new, subsidized teacher housing will help.

Public schools in Big Sky are losing teachers because their salaries can’t keep up with the median sale price for a single-family house, which currently…